Blade-of-the-Moon's Art

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

You never can tell.. lol

Honestly this guy came out much more fierce looking than I had thought..one of my religious aunts saw it with just the two  horns and asked why I was making a devil... lol

[stoneage]

You never can tell.. lol

Honestly this guy came out much more fierce looking than I had thought..one of my religious aunts saw it with just the two  horns and asked why I was making a devil... lol

Hasn't she seen your Evil Clowns and Pirate Skeletons?  She has to ask? Maybe you should make Satan, that would flip her out!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

You never can tell.. lol

Honestly this guy came out much more fierce looking than I had thought..one of my religious aunts saw it with just the two  horns and asked why I was making a devil... lol

Hasn't she seen your Evil Clowns and Pirate Skeletons?  She has to ask? Maybe you should make Satan, that would flip her out!

I know ! But apparently they and zombies, monsters, ect..still aren't as offensive as the Devil himself.. lol

I don't know I'm trying to lay low her religion-wise.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Had a question..can everyone see the pics I post or just those with a Facebook account since I use it to host my pics ?

[Weaver]

I am a Facebook user and I can also see these pictures. Also, oh gosh, I cannot wait to see the rest of the plates and spikes added to the Kentro. <3

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I am a Facebook user and I can also see these pictures. Also, oh gosh, I cannot wait to see the rest of the plates and spikes added to the Kentro. <3

Awesome. I hope members here who don't have a FB page can also view them. 

I'm making more spines as we speak..man this guy had a lot of them. I'm re-assured I didn't attempt a Stego though yet..would have been lucky to get the bigger plate done at a rate of one a day.. lol

[stoneage]

I'm not on Facebook and I can see your pictures here on the blog, but I can't see your pictures on Facebook.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I'm not on Facebook and I can see your pictures here on the blog, but I can't see your pictures on Facebook.

cool, thanks bud.

every once in awhile FB alters it's settings and I have to make sure all the pics i link from there still work.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Stygimoloch head progress :

[Jetoar]

Very cool, as always friend, I dont wait to see it the complete sculpture  .

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Thank you Jetoar ! This will be awhile I'm afraid , I've almost complete sculpt work on the Kentro, the Allo is next, then the Para and finally the Stygi.  I should be wrapping up the Stygi head in a couple days then I will start on my Ankylosaur head.

I still have a great temptation to do a Carnotaurus and maybe an adult sitting Dilophosaurus...provided I can keep in materials. A perched pterosaur could be cool as well.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Finished the spikes on the Kentrosaurus :



Just have to finish the feet , seal the chest and do a little detailing.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Ankylosaurus Magniventris head start :



Kentro done minus paint :




Allosaurus progress :



Stygimoloch head done :

[wings]

It is probably too early to tell on the Ankylosaurus since you just have a rough profile of the animal.

As per our discussion through emails, your Kentrosaurus is mainly based on Paul's reconstruction. Since we were talking about feet before I'll say one thing about the back feet of your animal (can't comment on the front feet because the picture is too small), as shown in the picture it seems your animal is a little "flatfooted". I wonder if that was based on the actual mount (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Kentrosaurus_aethiopicus_01.jpg), in here the "foot" bone (not toes) is running almost parallel to the ground. Whereas when the foot is properly articulated the configuration of the foot would be similar to the elephants (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/files/2011/12/Elephant_toe.jpg, the figure on the right is the back foot) where the "foot" bones (metatarsals) is orientated in an angle to the ground plane. To me what you currently have is kind of like the arrangement of the human foot (http://www.somso.de/img/qs22_2.jpg, notice the foot is running roughly perpendicular to the leg). The foot bones on Kentrosaurus (as in most if not all of the stegosaurs) are raised by the "foot pad" (http://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/9/1584/F1.large.jpg) almost like when a human wearing high heels (http://d2tq98mqfjyz2l.cloudfront.net/image_cache/1351660621459307.jpg). Most if not all dinosaurs walked on their toes. From looking at the mount you might have incorporated the "foot bones" with the "toe bones", making their toes look longer than they were supposed to be.

If you are interested in Paul's interpretation on stegosaurians' foot, here is what he said in his "how to guide" (see below):

"...The sauropod's and stegosaur's very short, broad metatarsi and toes, backed by a very large pad, indicate, however, a fixed ankle... Like the hand, all dinosaur and pterosaur feet are digitigrade or unguligrade, never plantigrade..."

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Hmm..I based the back feet on several sources. They all seemed to have a bit more toe than the front feet and this one does have it's legs spread feet planted firmly down facing the incoming threat by bracing itself before the tail goes to work.

It's hard to tell from the pics but the toe claw takes about 3-4" , over half of the visible toe there.  I guess it appears more flat footed because I ran the column of the leg all the way down the base for stability's sake.  When painted that will be a lot less obvious I assure you.

[wings]

Hmm..I based the back feet on several sources. They all seemed to have a bit more toe than the front feet and this one does have it's legs spread feet planted firmly down facing the incoming threat by bracing itself before the tail goes to work.

Could you point me to some of these sources? Because to me the toes look rather long and proportion wise very similar to "flatfooted" Kentrosaurus mount (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Kentrosaurus_aethiopicus_01.jpg). If you are saying that their feet (in this case I'm referring to the "foot bones") planted firmly on the ground then it is just not possible since their ankles are not mobile and cannot flex their feet just like the elephants'. The foot pad does get "squashed" a bit as the foot lands on the ground but the overall shape changes only slightly and not to the point where the "foot bones" (metatarsals) planted flatly to the ground. Other than Paul's you can see this condition in quite a lot of skeletal reconstruction from other artists/palaeotologists (i.e. http://medias.photodeck.com/ba3eb13e-e887-11e1-9edb-00259030440e/Stegosaurus_stenops_Skeletal_xgaplus.jpg or http://johnconway.co/images.medium/stegosaurus-stenops.jpeg). If I'm looking at Deltapodus footprints (presumably made by stegosaurians, http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8emkWn_EZ3s/ToI80nS-IhI/AAAAAAAABrA/VtpzOHQh0dw/s1600/Track-with-skin-stegosaur-Portugal-Mateus-et-al-2011_.jpg), it is hard to imagine these were made by animals with relatively long toes...

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I used many sculptures and figures for references there to see what it would look like fleshed out.  Like Shane's Stego here :

and his Kentro :

I also used the Carnegie Miragaia figure  for an in hand piece to work from :


I'd actually not seen that Kentro mount til now. 

I just mean that the toes are stretched to their max as it braces itself, putting a lot of pressure down and outward. At least that it what I was going for. 

I may have have made the toe claw sheaths overly long though. I hadn't seen that Stegosaur track before, the ones I saw labeled as stegosaur online had longer claws in the back.  Like this one :

[wings]

I think the footprints shown on the last diagram of your post comes from Gierlinski and Sabath (2008) paper (http://www.jurapark.pl/gierlinski/Gierlinski_and_Sabath_2008.pdf). However, it is doubtful that these are made by a stegosaurian (http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/front/medias/publication/44522_g2012n2a4.pdf, see page 304-306 for a more succinct explanation on why Stegopodus might not be made by stegosaurs). You'll find a better photo of the Deltapodus prints (you will find out what these prints are when skimming through these papers) on this paper (http://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app56/app20090055.pdf). It is cool to get inspiration from others work but I think some time if possible, it would be a good idea to try and look for references (photos, paper, etc.) of the actual specimen. Your animal would become more truthful to the actual animal (at least for the time being, until the next discovery/theory/study...).

As to whether these toes would stretch so far when applied with pressure, I don't think it is necessary. This is a x-ray of an elephant's foot (http://whatsinjohnsfreezer.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/elephant_pelvic-crop.jpg, please note how much space the foot pad occupied underneath its foot). The next link shows what happens when force is applied to the foot (http://whatsinjohnsfreezer.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/ele-footload.jpg, yellow is the relaxed state while the green is when weight is applied. You will notice that the toe position never really changes and the "bone shifting" actually occurs more at the ankle joint as this is where the main weigh is distributed). You can read more on this from here (http://whatsinjohnsfreezer.com/2012/03/16/out-of-the-freezer-and-into-the-loading-jig-25/).

On a side note, I would probably be questioning the diagram when I see the hand prints look "bigger" than the foot prints...

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I do try to look up the actual skeletons but most of the time I can't find the right angles I need. So I use skeletals for framing, but sometimes even then I can't get the shots I need. Like from above or below...an accurate 3D model would be great for this.  It's also difficult to see where all the muscles attach and how the flesh should be applied so I use a variety of other references to sort it out.  For an example, I did notice those hand prints were larger..by referencing other models and images I knew that was incorrect and with your help was able to fix the front feet.  When framing a good skeletal is great. But I really need to look at the muscles and fleshed out examples to know where to lay and attach the steel framing.

Looking at it now I think I did make the claws too long. Looking at it yesterday I'm almost positive that's what makes the toes look too big.